His death had previously been reported prematurely, but his son has reported that he did pass away on Wednesday morning.
You all know that he was Beaver’s older brother. More interesting to me is that he was the star of Never Too Young, ABC’s quixotic effort to air a soap opera that would appeal to high school and college kids in the mid-60s. It mostly took place at or near a bar where the surfing crowd hung out. It featured musical performances in that bar from some acts that were popular with students at the time, including some all-time greats like Marvin Gaye. The show aired late in the afternoon so students could watch it after school.
Yes, it’s an old turkey from the very end of the B&W era, but I have kind of a special interest in that show for two reasons:
(1) My high school girlfriend and I often talked about it, and sang the cheesy theme song together. Being snobs, we were not admirers, but loved to hate it. (I guess I was just pretending to be a snob to impress her. I did laugh at the melodramatics and the fact that the main characters never had to interrupt their hang-out by going to class or work, but I never told my girl that I actually loved the musical performances. C’mon, who doesn’t love Marvin Gaye?)
(2) Some 35 years later, I discovered that a friend, the late Dale Davis, king of the surfing photographers, made a few bucks as the surfing consultant to this production.
Never Too Young failed to attract a substantial audience. It was not a significant milestone in TV history, to say the least, but it was important in one way. It opened up the minds of ABC executives to the possibility that a late afternoon soap opera might work by appealing to a broader or different target demographic than the usual soap viewership. OK, maybe surfers failed, but there were other possibilities. What about angst-ridden vampires and hand-wringing werewolves? After the last episode of Never Too Young aired on a Friday, that time slot was filled on the following Monday by Dark Shadows, which eventually acquired the young audience and the “hip” cachet that had eluded Tony Dow and company.
So in a way, Tony and my friend Dale were TV pioneers, albeit obliquely.
Kind of a precursor to 90210 and Melrose Place. Interesting. Thanks for the share Scoop.
This is Tanya Roberts all over again.
“He’s still alive. They hit him with five shots and he’s still alive! Well that’s bad luck for me, and bad luck for you if you don’t make that deal.” – Virgil ‘The Turk’ Sollozzo
Actually, Tony Dow hasn’t passed…YET. His wife mistakenly reported he had died after an issue over the night, and he is now receiving hospice care in his home, so he is near death.
Well, we can say “rest in peace,” I suppose.
Did I miss the post about David Warner passing away?
Because I didn’t see one